To Go Back
by VeneficaMelody
Summary: Oneshot. A lonely guardian's recreation of a happier time after the fighting is finished.


**Title: **_To Go Back_

**Author: **_TsukinoHikage_

**Date Completed:**_ June 12, 2006_

The heavy stillness of the air bit into the woman's domestic chores like a red-hot knife. Only the snuffling of the large dog on the covered sofa and the clucking of chickens outside the kitchen window broke her concentration. As she dipped soapy hands into the water to pull the leaking plug and dispose of the dirty water she'd used for dish washing, the woman's garnet eyes stared out the window. She didn't see the chickens picking at the fresh blades of grass, nor did she see the twelve little baby ducks huddling beneath their mother's wing in the predawn light. Her gaze reached far beyond that, soaring over the hills and into a time that hadn't yet been imagined.

One wouldn't expect to find a Western-style farmhouse, complete with animals, in the Japanese countryside, but if a journey stretched far enough away from the city limits of Tokyo, it was possible. It was a small home, built in the style of a poor Western man's farmhouse, but the land stretched far into the surrounding hills so that if more room was ever needed, there would be no problem with further development. There was little to attest to any Japanese roots of the occupants, but if one saw the sole owner, a tawny-skinned woman with piercing eyes, they would know that she was foreign.

Meiou Setsuna wasn't the kind of woman that people took for granted; she was the sort of woman that people whispered about, the neighborhood witch. Sometimes, the idyllic fantasy of Setsuna's youth was shattered by the rattling of Japanese from the television, or the kimono hanging in her closet that reminded her of her present location. No one, not even the Senshi, knew why Setsuna had built the house to her specifications after their days as warriors were over, and she hadn't felt the need to enlighten them on her "odd" habits.

Years earlier, before any of the present Senshi and their queen had been reborn, Setsuna had lived for a short time in America. There, she had fallen in love with a strong, corn-fed man who made all of her dreams come true. People scoffed at the idea of Prince Charming, but Setsuna had found him once, long ago. She had lost him in an accident when he had been working. Construction wasn't the most dangerous job, but it had its moments, and in one of those rare accidents, her lover had lost his life. Knowing that to go against the Time Stream and change the events would mean her own death at the hands of avenging gods, Setsuna had fled America and pushed aside the memories as she trained Sailors Uranus and Neptune. Those two girls, although they didn't know it, had been her salvation. If it hadn't been for their training, and putting herself fully into their livelihood, Setsuna most likely would have broken beneath the weight of her depression. Her lover's death was nothing less than her own demise, and as much as she would have liked to follow him into the afterlife, Setsuna had known that she was destined for something much greater, and no one could fill her position.

After their life of fighting was over, Setsuna had found herself at a loss. What was there to do now to distract herself, after the girls had their own lives? Nothing, she decided. Hiring a construction crew that grumbled about her choice of a Western-style home, Setsuna made sure that everything was built precisely the way she remembered it. And after the house was finished, Setsuna painstakingly collected all of the animals that had been on her lover's farm, even trying to recreate the décor he had favored. The small bedroom was her favorite, but it had taken forever to track down a recreation of the soft brown sheets that had forever smelled of his shampoo.

Domesticity wasn't Setsuna's first calling, but she enjoyed keeping house, preparing it for her lover's return. Living in the memories of the happiest time of her life was what Setsuna loved in her twilight years. Hearing the snappy call of one of the former Senshi outside the window, the woman glanced at the clock. Almost seven, time for her to get ready and join the girls in the festival that Neo-Queen Serenity was hosting for the public. Shuffling in slippered feet to the closet, Setsuna pulled out the embroidered kimono and smiled wistfully. This was a part of her life that Jason never would have fit into, country boy that he was, but she missed him terribly. Pulling back her hair to be fixed after she dressed herself appropriately, Setsuna called out the words of welcome in the now-familiar Japanese as she prepared to once again step away from her memory-home that was her only shelter.


End file.
